April 27, 2024
Eyedrum
Atlanta, GA – USA
“Forest in a City”
Presented by SEAMUS & Bent Frequency.
Fixed and semi-fixed audio (mono, stereo, and multi-channel); Jan Berry Baker, saxophone; Stuart Gerber, percussion.
David George HASKELL: Field Recordings from Georgia Woodlands
Alex CHRISTIE: tuning for now & again
Daniel SMITH: Side B
Iddo AHARON: Xylem Dreams
Giorgio MAGNANENSI: il Guadagnini, sound sculpture, 2017
Kerrith LIVENGOOD: the smallest flock *
Jeremy Castro BAGUYOS: Respite
Daniel KARCHER: Circles of the World
Holland HOPSON: A Record of the Air from the Middle of a Cloud *
Kittie COOPER: the lightest things float to the top
Garrison GERARD: Within Ice
Nicholas CLINE: When We Speak of the Land *
Adam MIRZA: Cracks
John MOELLER: Induction/Transduction
Scott L. MILLER: A Garden Within a Forest *
*with live performers of Bent Frequency
Howard Wershil | 2 MAY 2024
Once Upon A Time in Los Angeles, I visited a Rainforest. Well, not a real rainforest, since California’s topography really doesn’t support such a phenomenon. No, this one appeared in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, an installation by David Tudor called Rainforest IV, consisting of performances amplified through sculptural objects acting as sonic resonators. As I recall this particular occurrence through the filter of time, there were multiple small objects densely suspended through two or three stories in a large, windowed area, with the resulting sonic density exuberantly and dynamically filling the space, emulating the cover and mystery of an actual rainforest.
Some years later, a few years after John Cage’s passing, I had the privilege to collaborate with several musicians and dancers in a John Cage Rolyholyover [Musi]Circus for Museum at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Our performances were generally improvised, somewhat chance-derived, and very personally inspired, with all participants intuitively responding to each other to create a rich and varied sonic and visual environment.
Fast forward an undisclosed number of decades, and I find myself wondering why the practice of creating a jubilant sea of sound for the public to enjoy doesn’t happen more often. But for at least one evening in April of 2024, we had Forest in a City at Eyedrum to help fill the gap.
Both David Tudor’s Rainforest IV and John Cage’s Musicircus concept, along with Giorgio Magnanensi’s current practice using wooden panels with transducers[1], and Janet Cardiff’s The Forty Part Motet, are installation inspirations for Forest in a City, presented by the Atlanta chapter of SEAMUS (Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States) along with composer Dr. Adam Mirza, Assistant Professor in Composition at Emory University in Atlanta, and Bent Frequency, one of Atlanta’s premiere new music ensembles. In this instance, to quote their promotional materials:
A “luthier” is a maker of stringed instruments such as violins or guitars. Dayton Audio exciters afforded the mechanisms providing resonance to the boards, allowing them to become actual speakers. Special thanks to Daniel Lickteig for carpentry, technical design, and audio/visual assistance.
One of the wooden resonator panels in Saturday’s “Forest in a City” concert at Eyedrum. (credit: Davida Cohen)
Unlike spaces in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the current Eyedrum location is an intimate, embracing space, and the particular pieces chosen for this event honor that intimacy. Pieces that clash with each other could have been chosen, but in this concert more were seemingly selected to blend and complement. Yes, there were welcome moments of dynamic change and sonic variation, but overall, the experience thankfully lacked the bombastic flood of ear-splitting sound that might have been appropriate for a larger venue.
As you enter Eyedrum, moving shortly past the entrance kiosk to the area where you experience the most complete combination of sounds, you see the eight cedar boards scattered throughout the space, labeled, softly lit, held upward by small legs, facing at various angles, but arranged in a predominantly circular fashion, pointing mostly but not exclusively inward towards the technology and percussion stations. There is ample space for the audience to walk and explore the output of sounds from many different perspectives. As the environment unfolds, live performances by Stuart Gerber and Jan Berry Baker later punctuate the ambiance, providing additional pacing and contrast for the occasion.
Percussionist Stuart Gerber, co-artistic director of Bent Frequency. (credit: Davida Cohen)
Both Jan Berry Baker (saxophone) and Stuart Gerber (percussion), the artistic directors of Bent Frequency, are highly trained, exceptional musicians well-versed in contemporary music and associated performance techniques. Combined with a more conventional performance approach, Stuart Gerber bowed the bars of a vibraphone and various bowls and surfaces, tapped various resonant and non-resonant objects, and played on snare drums and other instruments upon which were placed small objects that buzzed and responded to his actions, adding to the texture created by the sonics of other composers’ pieces sounding from the boards. Jan Berry Baker, also combined with a more conventional approach, coaxed multiphonics, squeals, cries, gentle sustained tones, and various other sounds that transformed the instrument into something more organic, expressive, and encompassing, adding marvelously to the existing continuous sonic texture.
Whether guided by the composer’s specific instructions or their own collaborative, improvisational sensibilities, their expressions, solo and combined, never overwhelmed or interrupted the resultant musical mélange. In fact, the blend of electronics and live performances over time was so seamless that it was often difficult to determine where one began and the other ended unless you were closely watching the performers. At various points, it seemed that a bit of live performance from several minutes ago had been recorded and replayed within the current sonic textures. Was it the case, or were the sounds of the other composers’ contributions fortunately reflecting Bent Frequency’s efforts? At a couple of different points, there was a live performance of a score of whimsical notation projected on one of the side walls, unexpectedly commanding our attention. Throughout the entirety of the experience, whether live or pre-recorded, clouds of sound changed and shifted at a well-planned pace and ably captured your attention over a bit more than the two-hour period that passed by like lightning.
The 15 composers represented (David George Haskell, Alex Christie, Daniel Smith, Iddo Aharony, Giorgio Magnanensi, Kerrith Livengood, Jeremy Castro Baguyos, Daniel Karcher, Holland Hopson, Kittie Cooper, Garrison Gerard, Nicholas Cline, Adam Mirza, John Moeller, and Scott L. Miller) hailed from several locations, including Colorado, Nebraska, Virginia, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, just to name a few. Each of them has substantial experience with electronic music as well as with current contemporary performance ensembles. Many of them were able to attend the event and were available for discussion with audience members at the conclusion of the event. Each more than successfully met the challenge of composing music that could be well-combined with other music simultaneously, a feat certainly as worthy of a task in sound design as in sound composition.
With so many composers represented and so many compositions involved, it’s impossible in this limited space to give every composer and every piece the attention merited. For a greater overview, you can find program notes for the event in the external links at the bottom of this review.[2]
Bear in mind that the program does not indicate the duration of each composition but does indicate the consideration with which the musical entrances were thoughtfully planned.
Overall, this was exactly the kind of experience I would expect and treasure from one of Atlanta’s most prominent, successful, and long-lasting presenters of experimental music and art. My only disappointment is that the event lasted only one evening. As rare as such events are, they should be available to far more individuals than a single evening can accommodate.
Once Upon A Time, in the city in a forest, I visited a Forest in a City… and it was magnificent! ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Bent Frequency: bentfrequency.com
- Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS): seamusonline.org
- Eyedrum: eyedrum.org
- [1] Giorgio Magnanensi’s practice of using wooden panels with transducers
- [2] Forest in a City program (PDF)
Read more by Howard Wershil.
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